[vnabhi]

Originally Posted by tilt

The word you're looking for is "abetment" or "abetting"; not "abatement". "Abatement" means "to end" or "to subside" or "to reduce". "Abetment" means "to aid" or "to help" or "to assist".

Cheers

Well, as it was in Kolkata, I bet it was pronounced as 'abatement' and hence the wrong spelling!

[Thad E Ginathom]

Preferring is always something a person does!

One can like or not like, but (at least in the sense that I most often see it used here) one can prefer but not not prefer.

I don't prefer to travel by train.

No: I prefer not to travel by train!

(which is true, actually, but at the end of this week I have to do it. I prefer taking a cushion to subjecting my backside to so many hours on those hard seats!)

[binand]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Preferring is always something a person does!

No: I prefer not to travel by train!

In Great Expectations, Mr. Jaggers tells Pip of his inheritance not in the pub where he is with his friends but at his home, saying: "I prefer not to anticipate my communication here". What's good for Dickens is good enough for me. :-)

[Thad E Ginathom]

What is good for Dickens should actually not be good for you!

There are some forms of usage that were current then that are not now. One thing that puzzled me, some years ago, is (as close as I can recall) he writes out window rather than out of the window. Or something like that. On enquiry, I found that it was the usage of his time.

What you quote is strange, and doesn't really make sense: not to anticipate his communication there? Many of Dickens's characters are strange. Many of them are caricatures.

None the less, what is good for me was also good for Dickens, and his character prefers not to, just as do I!

[binand]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

What you quote is strange, and doesn't really make sense: not to anticipate his communication there?

Wiktionary has this sense:

anticipate (vt): to take up or introduce (something) prematurely.

which I think fits the usage here.

[btw, a quick search of Project Gutenberg lists many more authors using "prefer not to"; among them Thomas Hardy, Sir A. C. Doyle, George Eliot & Rudyard Kipling, and Herman Melville & L. Frank Baum from the other side of the pond]

[Thad E Ginathom]

anticipate (vt): to take up or introduce (something) prematurely.

Sounds good.

a quick search of Project Gutenberg lists many more authors using "prefer not to"

prefer not --- correct

not prefer --- wrong

Is what I said. However, the latter seems to have become standard Indian usage anyway.

[anupmathur]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

....
prefer not --- correct
...

prefer not --- incorrect.
prefer not to --- correct.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Don't chase me down a hole!

I just quoted the specific words, rather than the whole line.

[mallumowgli]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Sounds good.

prefer not --- correct

not prefer --- wrong

Is what I said. However, the latter seems to have become standard Indian usage anyway.

Would agree with what you said above. But the below example is rather confusing - which is the one you say as correct?

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Preferring is always something a person does!

One can like or not like, but (at least in the sense that I most often see it used here) one can prefer but not not prefer.

I don't prefer to travel by train.

No: I prefer not to travel by train!

(which is true, actually, but at the end of this week I have to do it. I prefer taking a cushion to subjecting my backside to so many hours on those hard seats!)

[swissknife]

Originally Posted by mallumowgli

Would agree with what you said above. But the below example is rather confusing - which is the one you say as correct?

I think he prefers, "that he prefers to travel by car" rather than "he prefers not to travel by train". That he doesn't prefer to travel by train is something that he stated as well and a topic for another day.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Guys, there is confusion here!

A preference can be negative, but it is not something one does not have.

I prefer not to travel by train. No problem with that, except from the many train/railway fans! I think, with my stay-at-home lifestyle, I might even say that I prefer not to travel, or that I prefer not travelling.

But there is nothing that I don't prefer...

Although I am sure a valid usage can be found! But the common usage we see is not correct. I certainly don't prefer it.... Whoops!

[JohnyBoy]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

..
I preference can be negative, but it is not something one does not have.
...

I prefer 'autocorrected' to I preference? Or the 'I' is extra?

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

..
I prefer not to travel by train. No problem with that, except from the many train/railway fans! ...

except for the many fans?

[Thad E Ginathom]

The I preference is a typo. Yes, it should be A preference.

except for the many fans?

There may be a better way to put it, but no, not for.

What I meant is that those of us who don't actually much like train travel tend to get a bit of stick from the big fans. I know people from abroad who like to spend as much time as possible on trains when they are here! So my train-fan friends may give me a bit of stick.

OK... with might have been good.

[samaspire]

Found this photograph on this thread:
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...ml#post4382979

Notice the word "REMAINTS"?

I assume it's not a mistake, but what usage was this?

[binand]

Originally Posted by samaspire

Notice the word "REMAINTS"?

I assume it's not a mistake, but what usage was this?

I'm quite certain they had spelling mistakes in 1934 too. Even in tombstones. :-)